When Costco tried to reduce its use of plastic earlier this year by putting its popular grilled chicken in a thin bag instead of a larger clam shell, some chicken lovers were displeased.
The bags leaked, they said, and there was a risk of making a greasy mess. The edges were prone to tearing. “Chicken juice ran all over the trunk of our car!” one person complained on Reddit.
Welcome to the packaging wars.
There is widespread agreement that the world needs to use less plastic. Plastic waste fills the world’s landfills and clogs rivers and streams. Recycling has not kept up; less than 10 percent of plastic waste is recycled. Plastic can also contain chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems.
Curbing plastic packaging — often used once and then thrown away — is an obvious first step. But putting it into practice has proven difficult for businesses, policymakers and shoppers. Everyone has an opinion.
“You see experiments on this topic all over the landscape,” said Sandra Goldmark, a sustainability expert at Columbia University’s Climate School. “Right now, a lot of the experiments aren’t working very well. We haven’t really cracked the nut yet.”
Costco’s rotisserie chicken-in-a-bag was a classic example of a “less-bad” solution, she said. “But the funny thing about less-bad solutions is that it disappoints everyone,” she said. “It’s less plastic. There are fewer trucks on the road. But the chicken is still in a plastic bag, and there’s chicken juice all over your car.”
Take, for example, a bill in New York State that would require companies to reduce the amount of plastic packaging they use by 50 percent over 12 years, and they would have to find more sustainable options or pay a fee.
Opponents of the law pointed out that it could spell the end of another American institution: cheese slices. The plastic-to-cheese ratio in packages of individually wrapped cheese slices meant they would be a prime target if the law were to pass, they said.
“Under this law, New Yorkers can expect a future where they remove unpackaged items — from cereal to cheese to hot dogs — from grocery store bins before they buy them and take them home,” said Nelson Eusebio, executive director of the National Association of Supermarkets. told The New York PostThe bill has passed the Senate but has not yet been voted on in the General Assembly.
Supporters of the bill laughed, saying there were alternatives available, such as using paper.
“It’s clear that some multibillion-dollar companies and their lobbyists aren’t ready for the earth-shattering concept of separating cheese slices with baking paper,” said Judith Enck, president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics.
Four other states – California, Colorado, Oregon and Maine – have passed laws designed to reduce waste. about packagingStates and cities are also increasingly ban on single-use plastic bagsThe State of New York and Baltimore has filed a lawsuit plastic manufacturers who harm public health and the environment by promoting single-use plastics.
Some companies are starting to implement changes.
Last month, Amazon said it would replace its plastic air pillows, designed to cushion products during shipping, with packaging made from recycled paper, a move that would eliminate the use of nearly 15 billion pillows a year. Bath & Body Works recently introduced hand soap refills in paper boxesIn Great Britain, the supermarket chain Aldi is experimenting with paper bands for wrapping bananas instead of bags, and also sells wine in paper bottles.
Companies are also experimenting with making plastic recycling easier. In the UK this year, Coca-Cola, which target of environmental activists as the largest plastic polluter, tested plastic Sprite bottles without the adhesive labels which can make recycling more difficult. Instead, the bottles bore an embossed logo.
“There are so many trade-offs” that complicate the design of sustainable packaging, says John Thøgersen, an expert in green consumption at Aarhus University in Denmark. For example, people think glass bottles are more environmentally friendly than plastic, but that’s not necessarily the case, because it can take more energy to transport heavier glass bottles.
Food waste, which is bad for the climate, is another problem: yogurt sold in larger pots requires less plastic than yogurt in single-serving cups. However, research has shown that people who bought a pot also threw away more yogurt.
And of course, there’s functionality. Some shoppers appeared to have used Costco’s old rotisserie chicken packaging instead of a plate.
To eliminate plastic waste, companies will need to do one of two things, experts say: develop truly biodegradable or recyclable materials, still a work in progress, or switch to reusable or refillable packaging. Costco, for example, could let its customers take home a reusable chicken container over and over again. Bulk stores that let people take home nuts and grains in their own containers are another example of this approach.
Costco says His chicken bags would save 17 million pounds of plastic each year. Dr. Goldmark of Columbia University said that would be a commendable outcome.
“You don’t want perfection to be the enemy of good,” she said. “But we can’t lose sight of the fact that ‘less bad’ may not be enough.”
